The Complete Jungle Book Cycle is a challenging collection of 10 works for band, inspired by Rudyard Kipling's collection of the same name, including The Fall of the Stone, Morning Song in the Jungle, Night Song in the Jungle, The Inuit, The Beaches of Lukannon, Red Dog, The Peora Hunt, The Hunting Song of the Seeonee Pack, Tiger! Tiger!, and Mowgli’s Song Against People.

Program Notes

"My Kipling 'Jungle Book' Cycle, begun in 1898 and finished in 1947, was composed as a protest against civilization." (Grainger's program note, 1947)

Percy Grainger (1882-1961) studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany from 1895-1901 (aged 13-19). Grainger's mother Rose wrote her husband John of her fears that young Percy was becoming "more Germanized every day." In response to Rose's concern, and to "tickle up the British Lion in him," John (who was estranged from Rose) sent Percy, among other things, several books by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

Kipling's writings captivated Percy immediately, and he soon started writing choral settings of the poetry, especially those of Kipling's Jungle Books. Grainger's settings of the poetry of Kipling are as extensive as his settings of British folk music; Kay Freyfus's catalog of Grainger's manuscript scores lists 36 settings, though Grainger in a 1926 letter to Kipling mentions "some 40 or 50" settings.

Grainger felt a strong kinship for Kiplin's writing, and Kipling appreciated and approved of Grainger's work at setting his poetry. Grainger played several of his choral settings for Kipling during a meeting at Kipling's home in 1905; of Grainger's settings of his poetry, Kipling said, "Till now I've had to reply on black and white, but you do the thing for me in color."

The Complete Jungle Book Cycle by Percy Aldridge Grainger, arranged for band by Chalon Ragsdale.

1. The Fall of the Stone
2. Morning Song in the Jungle*
3. Night Song in the Jungle
4. The Inuit*
5. The Beaches of Lukannon*
6. Red Dog
7. The Peora Hunt*
8. The Hunting Song of the Seeonee Pack*
9. Tiger! Tiger!
10. Mowgli’s Song Against People>

*Also available as a 5 movement subset of the Jungle Book Cycle, published as The Jungle Book Suite.

Morning Songs in the Jungle, The Beaches of Lukannon, and The Inuit may be purchased individually.